Texas Constitution Research Paper

The state of Texas has had six constitutions. The constitution that took effect on February 15, 1876 is the current one still used today. The Texas Constitution is the second longest constitution in the United States, and one of the oldest still in effect. Since the constitution has been adopted it has been

Constitutions are a necessary tool in keeping a Nation running in a smooth manner. One is also necessary in keeping the components, which are states, running in an ordered way. The constitution of Texas has a long historical trail from 1827 to 1876 and there are many events that occurred during this time period. The current Texas constitution has many strengths and weaknesses and there have been revisions made to this document. This document limits the way government can be involved in certain problems that arise in Texas. The Texas constitution is a document with positives and negatives but it is definitely a necessity.

The United States Constitution and Texas Constitution are similar, but not indistinguishable. The constitution was made to prevent tyranny in the states from the idea of the Federalists who wanted to build a strong form of government that gave people rights without giving their representatives too much power. Additionally, both constitutions form a bicameral form of government, a House of Representatives, and a Senate. The Federalists wanted a strong central government to help the economic and social tensions; however, the Anti-Federalist feared the elite. Based on that, the purpose for a government was to protect liberty, which meant the reason for writing the constitution was to enable the government with certain limitations; that way the citizens would have rights by electing representatives. The most significant differences are the importance of why the constitutions were formed, the functions of the unitary or plural representation executives and the limited ability of the legislative power.

The Texas constitution is very long and detailed. The Texas constitution is long and detailed because of provisions that specifically tells the government what they can or can’t do. Now with the Texas constitution the government does not have the option about interpreting it to their advantage or disadvantage. Instead any person with the power inside of the government, if they wish to act outside of laws stated in the Texas constitution must have to amend the constitution. Now for the United States constitution, it is very brief and broad which allows the government to interpret it any way they would like in a sense. By doing this they can claim their implied powers to meet any specific circumstances that must do with public policy. When it comes to civil liberties the United states constitution are listed as the bill of rights which are just amendments listed versus the Texas constitution which are also called bill of rights but are stated in the first

From March 2, 1836 to February 19, 1846, Texas as its own independent country in North America. Those who resided in this independent country were referred to as Texians. Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 during the Texas revolution which ended on April 21 of that same exact year. However, Mexico did not want to give the Republic of Texas its independence which resulted in conflicts between that of Texas and Mexico that went on into the 1840s. As a result, The United States of America recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent country in 1837 but failed to append their land. Later receiving its independence, Texas elected a Congress of fourteen senators and twenty-nine representatives in the month of September and year of 1836. However, within the Republic, citizenship was not a privileged for everybody living in Texas. Not everybody had legal rights to reside within the limits of the Republic without Congress permission. The Constitution of the Republic of Texas created differences for each and every ethnicity for each individual person. Meaning, whoever was there on the day the Republic of Texas won their independence had to be classified as a citizen of the Republic including Africans, those with African descent, and Native Americans. For Caucasian immigrants to become citizens they would have to had lived in the Republic for six months or less and take an oath. Those who were brought to Texas as a slave had to stay a

On September 17, 1787, the U.S. constitution was signed. The U.S. constitution is a document that has a set of rules, guidelines, and principles that governs our nation. This constitution is the oldest written national document and has had 27 amendments. The current Texas constitution is the seventh document written for Texas. The previous six were all when Texas was still apart of Mexico. The current constitution hasn’t been revised since 1876, which makes it the longest state constitution in the United States.

The Texas Constitution of 1876 Certainly once one becomes familiar with the Texas Constitution and the Reconstruction period, they would recognize the need to redraft an entirely new document. Even though we can amend outdated legislation, this has contributed to the excessive length of the Texas Constitution. To date, there has been more than four-hundred and seventy- four amendments, and instead of organizing or thoughtfully placing these amendments with their correlating articles in the constitution, the amendments are scattered haphazardly throughout the body of the document. This exorbitantly long and restrictive document can be thought of as a model of what a constitution should not be.

The constitution mandates the legislators to hold biennial sessions; however, the governor also has the constitutional power to call for special or emergency sessions. Accordingly, the constitution empowers the legislators to amend the constitution, set policies, and also manage all state run institutional affairs. As mentioned in the first question, the constitution empowers the legislators to conduction processes such as legislative oversight and constituent functions, which are necessary whenever it comes to the implementation of government policies and programs. In a nutshell, the constitution of Texas simply provides a means for the legislators to follow the law especially when it comes to performing critical functions of the

The word constitution means fundamental law, law determining the fundamental political principles of a government. The U.S Constitution is the fundamental law for the United States, which means the Texas Constitution the fundamental law for the state of Texas. Most constitutions for the states are back up by the U.S Constitution, which means the two constitutions have similarities and differences. First, Texas constitution was written in 1827 and was rewritten six times until the Texas constitution of 1876 was passed down. There are many similarities and differences when comparing and contrasting the constitutions of Texas and New York constitutions.

For as many differences there are in different constitutions there are similarities. For instance, both of the state and national constitution contain a Bill of Rights, they are to protect civil liberties from government infringement (The Texas Constitution). The constitutions also both provide for a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives and a Senate (The Texas Constitution). Both of the constitutions seek a system of checks and balances as well as separations of powers from the legislature, executive, and judicial government branches (The Texas Constitution).

A couple centuries ago, to be specific 1827 was the year of the very first Texas Constitution. The first Texas constitution was called, The Constitution of Coahuila y Tejas. The population of what is now Texas was about four-thousand. Before declaring its independence from Mexico, Texas operated under the Mexican Constitution where there were two houses of congress.

The legal framework of a government, which establishes its power and authority as well as the limits on that power is known as Constitution. The Texas Constitution is a legal structure within which government works in Texas as the US Constitution is the legal structure for our national government. Reasonably, even more than US Constitution, the Texas Constitution has an immediate and vast impact on the everyday lives of Texans. The final constitution of Texas was written in 1876 and, in 1875 a constitutional convention was called. The current constitution of the Texas is among the longest of the state constitution in the United States. The Texas constitution performs many important tasks. Although there are rights guaranteed to Texan in Texas constitution that go far beyond those of US constitution addressing issues related to Texans privates lives, there are some weakness that I would like to change if I were given the task of rewrite the Texas Constitution.

constitution forms a unitary executive that emphases executive power in the President. In the legislative branch, the Texas has very detailed and specific restrictions over the taxes and spending policies but, U.S. constitution restricts the tax policies which senators and Representatives may write into law. The Texas Judicial branch has six types of courts, out of six, some has coinciding jurisdiction and has two high courts out of which one is for civil hearing and one is for criminal. The U.S. constitution has only three courts and the Judicial branch system is not as complicated as Taxes Judicial branch.

Both the Texas and the U.S. Constitution have a Bill of Rights, checks and balances, and have divided government via lower and higher powers. The U.S. Constitution was created to give the government power, in contrast the Texas constitution made sure that the main government does not have too much power over the Texas citizens. The founding fathers of the Texas constitution were wary of the government wielding too much power so they wanted to be careful to protect themselves.

and Texas constitution has individual rights which are in the Bill of Rights. Each of these rights are rights that people possess that the government may not violate. For the U.S. Constitution, it is the first 10 amendments. For the Texas Constitution, the Bill of Rights are in Article I, which includes promises to our freedoms which are not stated in the U.S. Constitution. Some of the promises made are prohibition of discrimination based on sex, forbids imprisonment for debt, protects the rights of crime victims and prohibits the garnishment of wages except for court-ordered child support. Texas forbids monopolies which are contrary to public interest, and give what circumstances a person can be denied bail. The 14th amendment which followed the Civil War, put more restrictions of Texas than was previously. This addressed citizenship rights and equal protection of